From December 2011: The people of Namosi staged a quiet protest against the proposed mining project on their land at Waisoi. Reps from Namosi Joint Venture (NJV) turned up for a meeting with the villagers in the area where the landowners are worried about the potential environmental effects and the loss of mataqali (landowning unit) lands. Photo: Facebook.com / Ricardo Morris
For more than ten years community groups in the Namosi region in the highlands of Fiji's Viti Levu have been trying to stop a mine going ahead there.
A joint venture led by Australian based multi-national Newcrest wants to develop an open cast copper and gold mine.
Newcrest says that the joint venture has been working hard to ensure the community is both aware of and consulted about its Waisoi project, which it stresses is still at the exploration and pre-feasibility stage.
It says it is currently conducting technical studies, community consultation and stakeholder engagement to try and find a commercially, environmentally and socially acceptable development concept.
Its exploration licence is up for renewal and an NGO called LAMA, or Lomani Au Maroroi Au, has brought together almost all the landowners to lodge an objection to a renewal today.
Spokesperson for LAMA, Sipiriano Nariva, told RNZ Pacific's Don Wiseman that they are opposed to all mining because of the destruction of the environment that results from it.
